On the way back from our Newcastle trip, we just had to drop off at Beamish. Beamish is an open air museum dedicated to portraying the history of working class people of the North East. Set in 300 acres of countryside in County Durham, Beamish is a time travel trip – backwards! We’ve always wanted to go, and we wasn’t disappointed! We went quite early and already the queues were long. Fast moving though: I would estimate we queued for about 40 minutes.

Beamish a trip down memory lane literally

At first glance it appears quite expensive to get in, but there are so many different places, shops and houses to go into, not to mention tram rides that if you were charged for each one, it would add up to considerably more.

Beamish step inside the past! Unbelievably you can go into these houses and see what the past was REALLY like!

It was a lovely day. The sun was actually shining for once as we waited for the tram. The expanse of the place is massive and you certainly do need the tram to get to the fartherest places. My only regret is that we didn’t get to see some parts of Beamish because of the lack of time (we had to travel back to Manchester and didn’t want to get stuck in the rush hour). You need a full day really, or even a couple to see everything. Special discounts and tickets were available; ideal if you live closer.

Beamish Mr Jones the Dentist gives a talk and would have given a demo...but no one volunteered!

One of the many fabulous features about Beamish is the people dressed in period costume, giving talks and demonstrations, placing the whole place in context and adding greatly to our understanding of the past.

amazing attention to detail everywhere (Mr Jones the Dentist's house, who was quite well off compared to others)